Personal information of Bangladeshi citizens being sold in Telegram!
Two police officers have sold 'classified' information of Bangladeshi citizens through various groups and channels of the online messaging app Telegram. They have sold personal confidential information including national identity cards and phone calls of the citizens of the country in exchange of money. The National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC) has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs to take action against the two officials.
NTMC DG Major General Ziaul Ahsan confirmed the matter to the media on Friday, June 7.
Brigadier General Baker said in an interview given to TechCrunch , a technology-related international media published on Thursday, that the information collected on multiple Telegram channels, Facebook groups and WhatsApp, including the Telegram channel called 'BD Cyber Gang', has been sold. Police officers used to provide information to admins of these groups. Those admins looked after the internet sales. However, General Baker could not confirm the exact number of citizens and how much information was sold online.
While investigating the matter, NTMC found evidence of selling information. In view of this, besides taking action against the responsible police officers, NTMC has stopped the access of police ATU and RAB-6 to NIP.
NTMC DG Major General Ziaul Ahsan said, 'The matter is correct. A letter in this regard has been sent to our notice. Access to those two organizations has been (temporarily) blocked until further action. I know that the police and RAB have been instructed by the Ministry of Home Affairs to take appropriate action against the responsible officials.
According to NTMC sources, around five hundred officers of 42 government agencies have access to NIP. They need access to various government services and investigative work. NIP contains personal information of citizens and Call Detail Record (CDR). The authorized officers access this portal with their user ID and password.
Analyzing the log server, NTMC found unusual login using user ID and password of Anti Terrorism Unit (ATU) Superintendent of Police Farhana Yasmin and RAB-6 ASP Tarek Aman Banna.
In a letter written to the Ministry of Home Affairs, NTMC said that 48 Telegram groups and channels with thousands of members are involved in selling these personal information. The login ID and password of two officials are used to gain access to sensitive information of members of these groups. Call data records sold on social media groups and messaging apps are retrieved from NTMC's servers.
NTMC requested to identify the responsible persons and take appropriate action against them after proper investigation of unauthorized use and illegal transfer of sensitive information.
The letter also states that it was first noticed in the login report between 8:57 PM and 9:27 PM on April 25. Between March 25 and April 25, the IDs of these two police and RAB officers collected more data than any other user.
In a letter written to NTMC on May 2, ATU said, "During preliminary investigation, ATU has come to know that Cyber Crime Wing's Constable Mrityunjay Chandra Roy and Operation Wing's Khairul Islam are involved in selling sensitive information including call detail records for money." The constables admitted it during interrogation.
On April 29, two constables of the cyber crime wing, Mritunjoy Chowdhury and Khairul Islam of the operations wing, were suspended, the letter said, saying that they have evidence of unauthorized data transfer through SP Farhana's login credentials.
RAB said that the officer of RAB-6 has been closed and investigation is going on in this matter.
NTMC is legally empowered to monitor all electronic communications in coordination with the Ministry of Telecommunications, BTRC, law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies.
